In this one, she pushes against the current trend of standardization in the classroom:

This is one part of a larger, troubling trend. Many people seem to be intensely afraid of the interpersonal nature of education, as we can see with the rush to standardization, the focus on data, the prescriptive pathways to student success. Some would like to unlock the secrets to education via neat little columns and easily replicable results. But education is based on human interactions, which are messy and ill-defined and unpredictable. They vary, as will our classrooms.

ENGL-READ Prof. Isaiah Ayafor will speak later this week at the Language and Sustainable Development Goals Symposium in New York regarding his piece published in the refereed journal, Language Policy. The title: “Eric A. Anchimbe: Language Policy and Identity Construction: The Dynamics of Cameroon’s Multilingualism.”

Faculty, staff and administrators are invited to nominate Montgomery College students who have shown excellence inside and outside of the classroom for the Dr. Harry Harden, Jr. Student Academic Excellence Medallion Award. One student from each of the College’s three campuses will be chosen for this prestigious award based on the following criteria.

Students must have:

earned a cumulative 3.5 or higher grade point average;

demonstrated outstanding leadership on campus or in our external community;

excelled in service to the College or our external community; and

been approved for graduation for May 2016 with an associate’s degree.

Nominations must be received by the Office of the Vice President/Provost of the respective campus by NOON,Friday, April 22, 2016. Please send the attached nomination form and any supporting documentation by campus mail or email to the attention of Catherine O’Brien. Selections will be made not later than May 2, 2016, and submitted to the Office of the SVP for Students Affairs. If you need more information, please contact the student’s campus VP/Provost office.

It was eleven-thirty in the morning, and Science Center 152 was already abuzz with the participants eagerly and excitedly talking about their projects and sharing their thoughts on their favorite works of literature with the faculty and students in attendance.

Some students were clustered around their posters chatting and relaxing, having found a space and occasion to be temporarily relieved of their study stress. This was the first Literature Poster Session hosted by the Department of Reading and English on November 17 in SC 152.

Over the course of the day, close to a hundred visitors attended the event. Thirty-three students had created colorful and thought-provoking poster presentations for display. Their topics ranged from Oedipus the King to Gilgamesh to Chinese poetry to Robinson Crusoe to Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things to Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Israel Alfaro won the poster session top prize for his English 201: World Lit I poster. Israel drew very clever connections between modern day memes and the Chinese ‘Classic of Poetry’ composed between 1000 and 600 B.C.E.